This collection has the following books:
Novels:
Desperate Remedies, Under the Greenwood Tree, or The Mellstock Quire: A Rural Painting of the Dutch School, A Pair of Blue Eyes, Far From the... More > Madding Crowd, The Hand of Ethelberta, Return of the Native, The Trumpet-Major, Two on a Tower, The Romantic Adventures of a Milkmaid, The Mayor of Casterbridge, The Woodlanders, Tess of the D’Urberville’s, Jude the Obscure, A Laodicean, The Well–Beloved
Short Story Collections:
Wessex Tales, A Group of Noble Dames, A Few Crusted Characters, The Fiddler of the Reels, Life’s Little Ironies, A Changed Man and Other Tales
Poetry:
Wessex Poems and other verses, Poems of the Past and the Present, The Dynasts, In Three Parts, Nineteen Acts, And One Hundred And Thirty Scenes, Time's Laughingstocks and Other Verses, Satires of Circumstance, Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses, Late Lyrics and Earlier< Less

As some of these novels of Wessex life address themselves more especially to readers into whose souls the iron has entered, and whose years have less pleasure in them now than heretofore, so "A... More > Laodicean" may perhaps help to while away an idle afternoon of the comfortable ones whose lines have fallen to them in pleasant places; above all, of that large and happy section of the reading public which has not yet reached ripeness of years; those to whom marriage is the pilgrim's Eternal City, and not a milestone on the way.
T.H.
January 1896.< Less

Jude The Obscure, by Thomas Hardy, is an extremely sad story that revolves around love and sexual yearnings within the peculiar matrixes of class and destiny in the Victorian 19th century. Jude the... More > Obscure has come to be recognized as one of Hardy's most important novels.
The book tells the tragic story of Jude Fawley, a kid from the country whose aspirations to university scholarship are thwarted; his socially unacceptable love affair is also a disaster. Fawley an orphan boy is brought up by his aunt. He is disqualified from the university because he comes from a poor family; he endeavours hard to survive but he falls in both love and education. Sensual love is represented by Arabella and spiritual love is represented by Sue Bridehead. Jude finds himself between the two.< Less

The story of the novel “The Return of the Native” revolves around five people mainly, and the Egdon Heath. Clym, the native who returns to Egdon changes the life of Mrs. Yeobright,... More > Eustacia, Thomasin, Mr, Wildeve and his own. Eustacia, the heroine and Clym are two contrasting characters beautifully sketched by the author. Mr. Venn, the reddleman the most, seem to be the most admirable character, maybe because of his presence at the right places, at the right times. Even the Rustics play an important part in this novel. Hardy's use of a barren heath and his art of characterisation are truly remarkable.< Less

Cytherea Graye, is forced by poverty to accept a post as lady's maid to the eccentric Miss Aldclyffe, the woman whom her father had loved but had been unable to marry. Cytherea loves a young... More > architect, Edward Springrove, but Miss Adclyffe's machinations, the discovery that Edward is already engaged to a woman whom he does not love, and the urgent need to support a sick brother drive Cytherea to accept the hand of Aeneas Manston, Miss Adclyffe's illegitimate son, whose first wife is believed to have perished in a fire; however, their marriage is almost immediately nullified when it emerges that his first wife had left the inn before it caught fire. Manston's wife, apparently, returns to live with him, but Cytherea, her brother, the local rector, and Edward come to suspect that the woman claiming to be Mrs. Manston is an imposter.< Less

At a country fair near Casterbridge, Wessex, a young hay-trusser named Michael Henchard overindulges in rum-laced furmity and quarrels with his wife, Susan. Spurred by alcohol, he decides to auction... More > off his wife and baby daughter, Elizabeth-Jane, to a sailor, Mr. Newson, for five guineas. Once sober the next day, he is too late to recover his family, particularly since his reluctance to reveal his own bad conduct keeps him from conducting an effective search. When he realizes that his wife and daughter are gone, probably for good, he swears not to touch liquor again for as many years as he has lived so far.
Eighteen years later, Henchard, now a successful grain merchant, is the eponymous Mayor of Casterbridge, known for his staunch sobriety. He is well respected for his financial acumen and his work ethic, but he is not well liked. Impulsive, selfish behavior and a violent temper are still part of his character, as are dishonesty and secretive activity.< Less

On its first appearance the novel suffered, perhaps deservedly, for what was involved in these intentions--for its quality of unexpectedness in particular--that unforgivable sin in the critic's... More > sight--the immediate precursor of 'Ethelberta' having been a purely rural tale. Moreover, in its choice of medium, and line of perspective, it undertook a delicate task: to excite interest in a drama--if such a dignified word may be used in the connection-- wherein servants were as important as, or more important than, their masters; wherein the drawing-room was sketched in many cases from the point of view of the servants' hall. Such a reversal of the social foreground has, perhaps, since grown more welcome, and readers even of the finer crusted kind may now be disposed to pardon a writer for presenting the sons and daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Chickerel as beings who come within the scope of a congenial regard.
T. H.
December 1895< Less

The book describes the love triangle of a young woman, Elfride Swancourt, and her two suitors from very different backgrounds. Stephen Smith is a socially inferior but ambitious young man who adores... More > her and with whom she shares a country background. Henry Knight is the respectable, established, older man who represents London society.
Elfride finds herself caught in a battle between her heart, her mind and the expectations of those around her - her parents and society. The novel is notable for the strong parallels to Hardy and his first wife Emma Gifford. When Elfride's father finds that his guest and candidate for his daughter's hand, architect's assistant Stephen Smith, is the son of a mason, he immediately orders him to leave.< Less

I reprint in this volume, for what they may be worth, a dozen minor novels that have been published in the periodical press at various dates in the past, in order to render them accessible to readers... More > who desire to have them in the complete series issued by my publishers. For aid in reclaiming some of the narratives I express my thanks to the proprietors and editors of the newspapers and magazines in whose pages they first appeared.
T. H.
August 1913< Less

I would make this preface an opportunity of expressing my sense of the courtesy and kindness of several bright-eyed Noble Dames yet in the flesh, who, since the first publication of these tales in... More > periodicals, six or seven years ago, have given me interesting comments and conjectures on such of the narratives as they have recognized to be connected with their own families, residences, or traditions; in which they have shown a truly philosophic absence of prejudice in their regard of those incidents whose relation has tended more distinctly to dramatize than to eulogize their ancestors. The outlines they have also given of other singular events in their family histories for use in a second "Group of Noble Dames," will, I fear, never reach the printing-press through me; but I shall store them up in memory of my informants' good nature.
T. H.
June 1896.< Less

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